Worldwide Abortion Statistics

Facts and figures relating to the incidence of abortion worldwide.

Accurate worldwide abortion statistics are difficult to come by since large portions of the globe do not record or report annual abortion totals. The global abortion estimates on this page come from a variety of sources, including the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Guttmacher Institute (AGI), and the Center for Reproductive Rights. Keep in mind that all of these organizations ideologically support abortion and are working towards its normalization.

ANNUAL WORLDWIDE ABORTION STATISTICS

Guttmacher's global abortion numbers are speculative and unverifiable. No more than 10% of their global abortion total can be officially accounted for, and only 23% has any basis in empirical evidence.1 The other 77% are assumed based upon a complex statistical model that estimates regional abortion totals based on the number of women of reproductive age, the assumed distribution of those women across five reproductive categories, and the assumed frequency of abortion for each of these categories.

Between 2010-2014, the Guttmacher Institute estimates that approximately 56 million abortions occurred each year around the globe. This is up from an estimated 50 million abortions per year between 1990-1994.

An estimated 64% of all global abortions (35.8 million) occur in Asia.

The estimated global abortion rate in 2014 was 35, down from 40 in 1994. The abortion rate is the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44.

Where is Abortion Legal?

Every few years, the United Nations (UN) publishes a worldwide abortion report. In 2013, the UN reported that abortion is legal upon request in 58 of its 193 Member States. Abortion is legal to save the life of the mother in all but seven of its member states—the exceptions being South Sudan, Malta, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Chile.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization dedicated to promoting abortion around the world, estimates that 60% of the global population lives in countries where abortion is broadly legal. Approximately 25% live in countries where it is broadly restricted. Generally speaking, abortion is legal in most of North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It is illegal in most of Africa and South America.

Abortion Rates by Country

The abortion rates in the following table come from the UN's World Abortion Policies reports from 2013 and 2007. The abortion rate is the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44. Additional abortion statistics are available for the countries that are hyperlinked below. 15.2 / 14.3 (2005) 10.0

*Though the UN lists China's oficial abortion rate at 19.2, China's actual abortion rate is likely much higher. According to China's 2010 census, there were approximately 310 million women of reproductive age in the country. An estimated 13-23 million abortions happen annually in China, resulting in an adjusted abortion rate of 41.9-74.2.

To make their global abortion tabulation, Guttmacher gathered data for 184 countries over a 25-year period (1990-2014). If all 184 countries had official data for all 25 years, that would yield 4,600 data points (184 x 25). In reality, there were only 962 data points available, and 527 were deemed incomplete. The remaining 435 data points represent only 9.5% of the theoretic whole. Though additional data was mined from unofficial studies, there wasn’t a single year of public or private abortion data available for fully half of the 184 countries considered.